Tag: writer’s block

It’s eight o’clock on a Friday night. You’ve blocked out this time specifically for writing, knowing it would be the one night this week you would have two to three free hours to get something done. You’re ready to go. You’ve set up your writing space at the kitchen table. You have blankets and tea and a Word document open on your laptop. It’s time to write.

Yet you just keep staring at that virtual page. You have no idea what to write. You want to. You need to, probably. Time isn’t the issue. Privacy isn’t a problem. This is the perfect time and place to write. You even feel motivated to start typing. You just can’t.

Many would call this writer’s block. I don’t, because it’s worse than a myth: it’s a lazy excuse for not getting anything done. There will come these moments when you’re trying as hard as you can to write, but nothing’s coming of it. What you have to realize in these moments is the amount of pressure you are putting on yourself. You’ve set yourself up to get all this work done; you’re ready to leap off that diving board into a pool of creativity. But you just end up standing up there on the edge, wondering if it’s actually worth diving headfirst into uncertainty.

It’s moments like these that stop far too many writers from ever meeting their full potential. Most of them don’t even know what’s happening to them. They just assume there’s something wrong – bad timing; lack of motivation; no “muse.” They take the advice to get up and clear your head for a few minutes as an excuse to abandon their work until they’re “inspired” again. What’s the problem there? Inspiration very rarely comes along when you’re waiting for it.

In these moments, you have to write anyway, even when it seems impossible. I struggled to start writing this blog post, but I didn’t quit. I told myself that if I could just write one sentence, even if it was terrible, I could get up, go get some more coffee and come back. My coffee mug is still empty. Once you start, stopping becomes the challenge.

These moments of mental struggle, of doubt, of fearing you’ll fail, these are normal. Every writer experiences them. The strongest ones write despite their weakest moments. This is going to happen to you. Treat these moments as opportunities, not excuses.

Just wait them out. Keep pushing through those nights you just don’t want to sit there and write something. It’s much harder to jump back in when you stop completely. Even if you have to write some really bad blog posts or chapters or essays. Even if you feel like you’re losing all your confidence or wasting precious time, nine times out of ten, if you just keep doing what you can to navigate the storm, it will pass. And you’ll emerge knowing you’ve tried the best you could – and compared to what you’ve already survived, what’s ahead might seem much more manageable.

Take that dive, even when you feel paralyzed. It’s very hard. Even I get frustrated with myself when I struggle to do something I wake up and do every single day. It doesn’t make sense half the time, but you sort of have to trick yourself into making it happen even when you’re terrified it won’t turn out right. You’re either going to fall flat or you’re going to nail that dive. Anything’s better than having to climb back down that ladder not having even tried at all.

Meg is the creator of Novelty Revisions, dedicated to helping writers put their ideas into words. She is a freelance writer and a nine-time NaNoWriMo winner with work published in Teen Ink, Success Story, Lifehack and USA TODAY College. Follow Meg on Twitter for tweets about writing, food and nerdy things.

I knew exactly what I wanted to type. The ideas were somewhat jumbled in my head, but they were there. i knew the points I wanted to get across, at least. But what was in my head, I could not force my fingers to type out. It was frustrating. And I started to worry that all the ‘writer’s block’ bashing I had been doing had been all for nothing.

Then something happened.

I clicked away from that screen. Opened a new tab. I did exactly what you are not supposed to do: I jumped right into another task, writing a few paragraphs of a completely different project. I had no problems getting those paragraphs out onto the page. They came as easily as if I had not just spent five minutes trying to force myself to write something.

I saved that document, went back to my original project, and …. finished the entire thing. Without even pausing to fully comprehend what had just happened.

The problem was not me. It was not some invisible block in my brain preventing me from being creative for some unknown reason. All I needed was a few minutes away from the project that wasn’t coming together. I was still productive. Just through a different medium. Then I was able to go back and finish what I had attempted to start before, but hadn’t been able to finish at the time.

Over time we have somehow fallen for this misconception that being ‘blocked’ from doing a task means we have to drop everything and not come back until much, much later. Sometimes going for a walk or sitting still for a few minutes helps, and you’re supposed to take legitimate breaks about every hour, according to the productivity experts (of which I am not one). But not always.

We waste a lot of time trying to ‘find’ the motivation we have somehow apparently lost. Most of the time, I doubt ‘lack of motivation’ is the problem at all. When I first starting trying to write that piece, my head was not in it. I was thinking about something else I had to get done. Trying to write, and not being able to, frustrated me. Yet I knew that if I got up and started walking around my house, I would find something else to occupy me … and wouldn’t get back to work for the rest of the day. Which was, as you can probably guess, not an option.

When you are stuck, it is okay to move on to something else. It doesn’t mean you have to give up completely. Writer’s block is still a myth. There is no mental exercise, amount of time away from a screen or amount of showering that is going to suddenly inspire you. Your brain is trying to tell you that it needs to focus on something else for a few minutes – and it is okay if that something is a different assignment.

As always, the most important takeaway here is that, at some point, you get back to writing.

What do you do to help yourself regain your focus? Are you a loyal believer in the writer’s block phenomenon? I would love to hear your side of the argument.

Meg is the creator of Novelty Revisions, dedicated to helping writers put their ideas into words. She is a freelance writer and an eight-time NaNoWriMo winner with work published in Teen Ink, Success Story, Lifehack and USA TODAY College. Follow Meg on Twitter.

Here at Novelty Revisions, we call this brain drought (because, as you’ll remember from yesterday, writer’s block? Yeah, not actually a thing after all). We’re totally into what we’re writing. It’s such a great feeling that we just keep going, either because we’re afraid to stop or because we don’t even realize we need to give ourselves a chance to rest.

Burning out from too many words is really hard to bounce back from. As always, we’re here for you. Check out these tips to help get you back to writing slowly and efficiently.

Slowly ease yourself back into it

After you’ve put a lot of time and energy into finishing up a big project, it’s okay to relax (here are some helpful tips for that). It’s okay to give your brain a break. You’ve accomplished a lot – you deserve to reward yourself with sleep or Netflix or whatever mindless task you choose.

It takes a lot of energy to write, whether you realize it or not. (So next time someone tells you that you shouldn’t be so tired after writing all day, just tell them you’ve been working out … your brain).

When you do start to feel ready to jump back into the game, is a semi-nonsensical Tumblr post the first thing you’re inspired to write? WRITE IT!

Honestly, the best way to get yourself into a writing flow again is to start writing … anything. A thoughtful Facebook post, an email to someone who may or not read past the first line, maybe. You don’t have to leap headfirst into another project right away. But even if you do, you don’t have to go at the rate you were before. For the first few weeks, let yourself write a little bit of a lot of different things until you can establish a new routine and get going at your normal pace again.

Well. Maybe not quite up to that pace.

Learn from the experience

So you got excited, brain rush won the argument and you wrote so much your brain basically went into overload mode and shut down. Not good.

When you’re finally back into a good rhythm, it’s important not to forget what you just went through. Don’t fall back into the bad habit that totally threw you off course in the first place. Learn from it. Learn how to better pace yourself so this doesn’t happen again.

Speaking (writing) of bad habits, we’re going to be starting a new series on breaking bad writing habits. So if you have bad writing habits you’ve managed to break in the past or would love some advice on how to break them now, please leave them in the comments or on our Facebook page. It’s going to be awesome, but your input will make it even more awesome and helpful.

Not even after I spent four hours sitting in front of my laptop Monday afternoon, jumping from writing project to writing project, feeling completely … blocked.

Unable to finish anything I started, annoyed with PubMed, constantly allowing myself to get distracted, I was almost – almost – convinced that I’d been wrong all this time. That writer’s block did exist, and it was crushing my productivity.

The frustration and discouragement that comes with those kinds of experiences is where the idea of writer’s block probably originated. But it goes much deeper than some invisible force keeping you from getting your work done (some of us call those “excuses”).

There is always a legitimate reason why you cannot write or do not feel like writing. And I’m not ashamed to admit that I wasn’t completely sure of what those major reasons could actually be, until I discovered a few of them for myself.

Let me explain.

Your brain knows when you’re doing it wrong

It knows when you’re trying to make an idea happen that is not meant to happen. All things considered, you’re pretty smart. You know, deep down, when you’re doing something that is not in your best interest … or the best interest of anyone else.

In terms of writing, there are days where even the projects we are most excited about are tough to get through. But most of the time, when you’re really struggling to finish something, it’s probably because it’s the absolute last thing you want to be writing right now.

At least, that’s what I figured out was happening to me.

I had an article to write. And I did not want to write it. At all.

Basically, I was doing everything I always tell you not to do

I found myself twisting the angle of my article to fit what the publication was more likely to accept (NEVER DO THIS). I abandoned my original idea, the article I was actually interested in writing, because I knew it wasn’t the right fit based on their submission guidelines.

Writing an article you’re not interested in writing is exactly like getting a topic assigned for a research paper in school and having to sit down and write it regardless of whether you “feel like it” or not.

It’s not writer’s block. You’re just having a hard time making personal connections with the topic, and your brain is screaming at you to stop trying to force yourself to finish and to please write something else.

If this is you, take a deep breath. There is a way to get past it.

How I got it all done anyway

I had a feeling, as I sat down to get some writing done early in the afternoon, it was going to be a rough session. Usually I can ignore my Facebook tab, but I kept clicking over to it. My brother had The Office on in the other room, and I kept wandering in to “see which episode it was” (we all know where that leads). I kept jumping between about five different things, not getting anything done on any of them, because I was having a hard time staying focused.

It’s a misconception that when you’re having trouble focusing, it’s because you’ve lost the motivation to keep working. Actually, you’re probably having trouble focusing either because your physical needs aren’t satisfied (you’re tired, hungry, cold), you have an unread message and keep thinking about what your response will be or you don’t actually want to be working on what you’re working on.

I took a few steps to realign my focus, and guess what? I got everything done. One project at a time.

I answered a message waiting for a reply.

I closed Facebook.

I closed my door so I couldn’t hear the T.V. in the background.

I got a blanket.

I put my phone on silent and set it just out of reach.

I closed out all projects except for one.

I took a 10-minute break and read a few pages in my book.

Then, with only one project open, I sat down and I finished it. No distractions, realizing that I WAS interested in writing the article, I was just trying to do too many things at once.

And repeat.

You are in control of your own productivity

I had a headache. I was tired. It was Monday. I didn’t want to do my work.

But do you know what? I am 23 years old. I am technically an adult. I have a lot to do in a relatively short period of time, and I cannot afford (literally) to put off my work just because I don’t feel like doing it.

The best part? When I got it all done, I still had time to watch a few more episodes of The Office.

Meg is the managing editor at College Lifestyles magazine, a guest contributor with Lifehack and a guest blogger for Food & Nutrition Magazine. She is an eight-time NaNoWriMo winner and has also written for Teen Ink and USA TODAY College. Follow Meg on Twitter.

The first step to overcoming an obstacle is acknowledging there’s an obstacle to overcome. Most writers who are struggling to start, maintain or complete projects often have trouble figuring out exactly why. And without the why, there’s not much hope in figuring out how to fix the problem.

Here are a few likely reasons you’re really struggling to get a decent amount of writing done this week, and how to start to overcome them next week.

1. Your brain is trying to tell you something

If you’re “just not into” writing this week, there might be a few completely logical explanations as to why. You might be bored with your current project and are debating whether or not to keep working on it. You might be preoccupied with something else—a life event or another story dancing around in your head. Your brain also might be trying to tell you something.

It’s really easy, once you’re dealing with brain rush, to end up burning through all the motivation and energy you’ve accumulated in coming up with (and working on) many new ideas at once. Engrossed in what you’re working on, you might not even notice you’ve worn yourself out. So your brain tells you so—by making you stop. You’re not supposed to push through it; you need to rest. And if that rest period takes a week, fine. Start up again next week, refreshed and ready to go.

2. You forgot to put it in your schedule

Maybe you intended to, and your calendar just filled up all of a sudden. Maybe you didn’t, because you’re a person and you can only handle so much stress in one week. Maybe you did put it on your schedule, but had to push it aside to make room for something else.

Scheduling out time to write, as often as you feel you want or need to, works for some and doesn’t for others. If you want to make time to write often, and writing isn’t the only thing on your agenda, at least try making it part of a set routine. See how it goes. That might be the only way you can assure yourself you’re going to make continuous progress despite busyness.

3. You had more important things to do

This is an honest, completely reasonable cause for not getting any writing done. You’re just busy, and not just busy reading or playing video games (though that might also be a factor to consider). You have work, school, family, friends, a cat. Things just got in the way. Does that make you a “bad writer”?

Of course it doesn’t. It makes you a human being. Didn’t get any writing done this week, or not as much as you wanted? That’s okay. You took care of what you needed to take care of, and that’s what matters the most.

Writing isn’t always going to be at the top of your priority list, but that doesn’t make you any less of a writer. In fact, it makes you a better one. Would you really have been able to focus all your attention on your story/article/book/etc. if you’d had other, more important things on your mind?

Writing often comes second. Sometimes you can make the time to get it done, and sometimes you can’t. That’s just the life of a writer in a virtual nutshell.

A pretty big component of a successful life as a writer is being able to get a lot of writing done. You’ll have good days and productive weeks, and you’ll have awful days and entire weeks you barely get anything done. It’s all part of the process, and certainly nothing to be stressed about or ashamed of.

Listen to your brain. Schedule out time to get it done and prioritize. Instead of trying to make up for lost time, focus on moving forward at a steady pace. You’re going to get it done. Often, it just takes time.

You’ve been staring at your screen for 20 minutes. You know exactly which ideas you want to take out of your head and put onto paper today. Yet every time you try to start writing, you just stop.

You want to write. But you just … can’t.

This happens to all of us, for plenty of reasons. You might be tired, or stressed. You might have had five amazingly productive writing days in a row, and have unintentionally burned yourself out.

Over time I’ve trained myself to keep writing even when I don’t feel like it. You’re going to have those days, when writing is the absolute last thing you want to spend your time doing. The more you get into professional writing, though, it becomes mandatory to write despite your mood or lack of motivation, so it’s not a bad idea to practice and make it a habit before that happens.

Does that mean, sometimes, the quality of what I’m writing isn’t the best it could be? Of course. Something else we learn, the more time we spend writing, is that nothing we write will ever be perfect, especially in the first draft. Sometimes you just need to get the words out, so you have something to go back and work with later. It’s the final product that needs to be at its highest possible quality, but when you’re still in the writing stage of the process, it’s okay to just plow through.

Whether it’s the time of day or just stubborn brain drought (writer’s block, but not) throwing you off, there’s no definite quick fix for writing, even when you don’t feel like it. As writers, unfortunately, it’s up to us to figure out the creatively stimulating methods that jumpstart our motivation and keep us going, even when we’d rather be doing something, anything else.

Maybe for you, that’s walking away and coming back later. Maybe you spend a few hours watching a movie. Maybe you just keep writing anyway. Everyone is different. Thankfully, there’s no right or wrong, just what works best for us.

Let’s discuss. Maybe someone else has a tactic you’ve never tried before. Maybe you’ve never had this problem (lucky you!) and are keeping some kind of secret (please share).

What do you do when the words just aren’t coming? Do you push through it, or take a break?

How do you motivate yourself to keep going, even when you know you’re not writing your absolute best work?

You love writing. Even if you’re not the best, you just love sitting down and playing with words. So why all of a sudden, the second you get a new idea for a story unlike anything you’ve ever tried writing before, are you so afraid to sit down and start writing it?

The truth is, you’re afraid of failing. Afraid that you’ll start and won’t finish, that you’ll finish and it won’t be publishable, that it will get published but everyone will hate it.

Being afraid to fail is a roadblock that spans across many different disciplines. It’s normal to hesitate for fear of falling short of your own expectations. But don’t let fear stop you from doing what you love. Here are three ways you might be able to overcome your latest creative barrier.

Solution 1: Ask yourself why the idea is important to you

We’re constantly bombarded with ideas. The ones that really stick out to us, the ones we just can’t seem to get out of our heads, mean something special to us. And it’s not just a coincidence, either. If you can’t get it out of your head, it’s probably because there’s something significant about it that appeals to you enough to want to expand upon it.

If you have an idea but are afraid it won’t go anywhere, take a few moments to work out why it matters to you personally. Do you have a specific message you really want to get across to a group of people? Do you have a story to tell that reflects personal experiences you really want to share? If it’s important to you for a good reason, it’s worth taking further, even if it does come to a dead end.

Solution 2: Choose someone you know to be your “motivation”

If you lack confidence in your ability to start, work on, finish, revise and/or publish your work, you might just be unintentionally overwhelming yourself thinking about the hundreds of thousands of people who may or may never read your story. If you can’t write for a thousand, for a hundred, for ten—just write for one.

You could even work this method into your dedication. “I’m writing this for so-and-so.” Choose someone close to you, someone you know will love and appreciate your hard work and effort even if you don’t ever actually finish. But maybe focusing on that one person, if you can’t stop yourself from thinking of your audience outside of writing the actual story, will make it easier for you to push forward even when you’re worried about never making it as far as you hope to someday.

Solution 3: Accept that the only way to fail at writing a story is to never start writing it

There isn’t a story out there that can really be considered a failure. If it has a beginning, middle and end, some characters, a plot and a problem that eventually gets resolved, it’s still a story. Some stories are better than others, but that doesn’t mean one story is a failure in comparison to one that’s more successful.

If you think of it that way, the only way to really fail at writing something is to never even give it a chance. We learn something new from each story, poem, article, book, etc., that we write. You’re never going to acquire the experience and skills you might need to avoid failure if you never allow yourself to learn from your shortcomings and mistakes.

It’s also important to remember that just because you have an idea doesn’t mean you’re required to tell people about it. If you are anxious to start working on a project but aren’t ready to talk about it until you’re more confident, you don’t have to. Sharing ideas can be beneficial, but don’t let that alone kill your creative productivity if you don’t want to. It’s okay to keep it to yourself for a while.

Failure is a part of the life of a writer the same way it’s a part of life in general. The important thing is that you’re able to convince yourself to go for it—and know that if you do take a tumble, you will get back up again, and your love for writing will not abandon you no matter how many times you think it has.

Just do it. Be brave. Sure, you might fail. But there’s also a chance you might succeed, too.

It’s not the best idea to consistently force yourself to write “when you’re just not feeling it.” Especially when it feels like you’ve just run out of ideas, and need a little time for your brain’s creative switch to reset itself. Given time, that spark of motivation and flow of ideas will always come back.

But what if you’re a good ways into your story, you’re not stuck and all you need to do is fill in the gaps—but you’re just too busy to make consistent progress?

I’ve been working on my current book for over three years now. Two of those years, I was still in college, and as you can probably imagine (or infer from experience), time to write was minimal. So if there wasn’t a WriMo or a class break anytime soon, large quantities of writing didn’t really get done.

This past year I’ve bounced between a few internships, a temporary job, finishing up two degrees and starting graduate school. Some more time to write there, but I still wasn’t into the whole forcing yourself to write thing. Now I’m knee-deep in school work, job hunting, balancing a part-time gig (which is nice because I can do it in sweatpants and no one would ever know) and, of course, creating Novelty Revisions content daily, because I consider that (and you, my readers) a priority.

Honestly? I don’t really have time to write. But for the past week or so, since technically hitting my Camp NaNo word count goal, I’ve set a daily 1,000 word writing goal, because I told myself I wanted to get to 40,000 total words before the end of the month (that’s 40,000 including what I had written before July started). And I’m almost there. And if I keep going at this rate, I could technically, maybe, finish this thing before September, which would be amazing.

Because, as I mentioned: three years. A long time. And this newest revision, which I started completely from scratch, I’ve only been working on since April.

So is it technically a new book, not the same one I’ve been working on for three years? Eh, I guess. But so many of this new draft’s themes and concepts are taken from the first two revisions, I kind of just group them all into the same steady project.

Right now, with so much going on (and trying to start new projects, even though I’m nervous doing that without knowing what my job situation will look like in the next month), cranking out that daily 1K is really hard. And this is coming from someone who wrote an 130,000 word book in two weeks, but we’re not discussing the precise details of how that happened. Basically, it’s surprising to be struggling to get out such a small (in comparison) amount of words per day.

So how do I do it? I put it in my planner and say, “Do it.”

Is it always pretty? Of course not. I already know there are a few pieces I’m going to have to go back and fix, or maybe even not use at all. But sometimes we need to just convince ourselves writing something is more important than writing nothing.

It’s a lot easier, I’ve found, to go back and rework a few parts of a book then refuse to write anything because you’re not going to do your absolute best. I am type A! Of course it drives me loopy to write something I know isn’t the best I can do. But I know where the story is going, I know what I want to write, it’s just a matter of sitting down and getting the words out of my head and into the document.

Not everyone can do that. I know. I’m not at all saying you’re any “less” of a writer if you can’t write when you just aren’t feeling it. Maybe it’s one of those skills you have to practice over time; I honestly don’t know.

The nerd part of me (okay, all of me) would love to do some kind of study on that (or find one, if it already exists). If you force yourself to write, in small increments over an extended period of time, does it get easier? I’m going to feel really dumb if there is an obvious answer to this, but I’m always transparent with you. And right now, I’m rushing to finish this post so I can get started on something else I need to have done today, and I don’t have time to go any deeper than a Google search, which didn’t bring up anything too promising.

Just try this for me: next time you want to write, but don’t feel like writing, figure out the best way to talk yourself into doing it anyway. Even if it’s less than 100 words at a time. Can you do it? And once you sit down, open your document and go, is it easier to far surpass that small goal and forget why you were so resistant to the idea of writing that day?

Are we just too distracted by other things? Is that why we don’t feel like doing the thing we quite possibly love the most?

I don’t know about you, but when I’m not writing, I’m just not whole.

Love&hugs, Meg<3

Image courtesy of Novelty Revisions.

A recent graduate with a B.A. in English and a completed major in nutrition, currently seeking a graduate degree in health communication, Meg is a twenty-something workaholic with a passion for writing, coffee and dietetics. In addition to her status as an aspiring novelist and Grammar Nazi (and the mastermind behind this site), Meg is an editor for College Lifestyles magazine and a guest blogger for Food & Nutrition Magazine’s Stone Soup. She is a seven-time NaNoWriMo winner and has written several creative pieces for Teen Ink magazine. Follow Meg on Twitter.

Switch back over whichever program houses your current writing project.

Stare blankly at white space.

Sigh.

Repeat.

You’re trying to get work done. Write, which to you, is work. But you can’t.

You’re just … bored.

We’re here to help you find the boredom cure that’s right for you. Stay awake, now. (We saw you yawn. Don’t try to hide it.)

Solution 1: Take a break

There’s no secret writing law that says taking a break isn’t allowed. The general fear is that stopping one project, either to work on something different for a while or just to take a total writing hiatus, will lead to quitting, or at least never being able to go back and finish what you started.

Don’t think of breaks as giving up. Think of them as valuable time for your brain to recover from intense use. Give your ideas time to untangle themselves. Give yourself time to get out and do something else—spend time with friends, do something fun, anything besides writing—before letting yourself sit down to write again. Giving yourself permission will gradually dissolve that initial hesitation and guilt.

Solution 2: Toss in a sudden plot twist

Because—why not? Just like there’s no law demanding you keep writing even when you literally can’t even, there’s nothing that says you have to always and consistently stick to something realistic or previously planned out.

If you’re bored, for goodness sake, it’s your story. Throw in your own curve ball. Make your characters do something even you wouldn’t have predicted. Take your original plot line and go completely the other direction. Basically, just shove caution off the page and go for it (whatever “it” is). It might turn out to be a completely useless tangent later. It might inspire you to go back and keep working from your original outline. Or you might actually like the new storyline. Whatever it takes to pull you out of the boredom chair.

Solution 3: Remember there are no rules

As far as your literary universe is concerned, you are a god. You decide what happens, when, why, how. If you’re just tired of working on the same thing you’ve been plowing through for months, you have options, but really, no one, not even your own conscience, can tell you what to do.

You can change up the story. You can change up the place you write in. You can switch from Mac Pages to paper to dry erase board and back. You can, and should, do whatever it takes to keep yourself going without giving up. You’re not wasting time; you’re giving yourself a new angle. A different goal to work toward. If you’re bored, your creativity just needs a new outlet for a little while. That’s fine. Normal. DO IT.

Giving your work a rest is healthy.

Letting yourself have a little spontaneous fun with words—it’s like a dream come true.

No rules? You’ve been waiting forever for this moment to arrive.

It’s your story.

Do with it what you will. Especially when you’re bored.

Do you have a “writer problem” that you can’t seem to find a solution to? Leave a comment or tweet @MegDowell with the hashtag #NRSaturdaySolutions and we might help you solve your problem in next week’s post!

You want to write. You need to write. Yet every time you find yourself starting to get into a good rhythm, a steady, routine, life, as it is well known to do, just “happens.”

Life events—whether planned, like holidays and family get-togethers, or unplanned, such as spontaneous road trips or funerals—disrupt more than just writing time. But when you’re a writer, and your writing time gets upturned, well, that can be just as unsettling.

Busyness is actually a completely different hang-up than life just getting in the way. Yet the methods for solving both barriers are quite similar, it turns out.

Here are our three solutions for keeping on pace with your writing goals, on this lovely holiday weekend (Independence Day for us USA’ers) when we’d all rather be writing, but family, food and fireworks are calling (loudly … so loudly).

Solution 1: Plan ahead as best you can

When things come up you don’t expect, especially if it involves spending quality time with someone close to you, the world won’t stop if your writing does for a while. For the expected, such as a weekend holiday spent with family, spend a little more time writing the weeks before and after your break to make up for lost time.

If a break in your normal writing routine is notorious for throwing you off and knocking out your motivation, be prepared. Know ahead of time it’s going to be more of a challenge to get back into the writing groove, and try not to beat yourself up too much when it does happen.

Solution 2: Write when you can; walk away when you can’t

If life is weighing you down, but you feel the urge to write, set aside a little time and let it happen. In those moments, writing can act as a stress-reliever and take your mind off of school, work, family or whatever else has been occupying your time while away from your desk.

When the words just aren’t coming, don’t force them. Sometimes it’s just not going to happen, and as hard as it is to come to terms with that, it’s just part of the deal. Taking a short break—hours, days, even months—doesn’t mean you love writing any less, that you’re giving up or that you’re never going to start again. Sometimes there are other things you need to take care of first. Your ideas won’t go away. They’ll wait until you’re ready.

Solution 3: Use “I need to write” as an excuse

Not to brag, not to be rude, but to give both yourself and those around you a good reason to spend 30, 10, maybe even just five minutes alone with your laptop, notepad or whatever you use to put your thoughts into words. Your friends and family will understand that, even if you don’t get paid for it, writing is your form of work. Yes, take a little time off. Have fun. Relax. But if you’re itching to write, taking time away to fulfill that need is completely acceptable.

If it’s a holiday, you’re on vacation or you have way too many other things to do, block out 30 minutes of writing time per day. If you have to, do it early in the morning, before the rest of the world wakes up, or late at night, when everyone is sleeping. When brain rush leads to seemingly tireless inspiration, don’t let it go to waste. Sometimes, making small sacrifices for the benefit of your craft is one hundred percent okay.

Life happens. But writing is part of your life. Let neither the predicted nor the unpredictable stand between you and writing those words.